GOP holds hearings but in the Real Benghazi a Retired Col. is bombarding Extremists

As congressional Republicans prepare to have yet another round of investigations into the September 11, 2012 attacks on a US “consulate” in Benghazi, Libya, it is hard to see any concrete steps they have taken to forestall such calamities going forward. Congress had refused requests for better embassy security in 2012 because, they said, it costs money.

Beginning on Friday, Col. Khalifa Haftar (ret.) rallied irregulars and some actual Libyan army troops– to mount a military campaign against the Ansar al-Shariah and other extremist militias in Behnghazi.. These anti-fundamentalist forces had access to Libyan army weapons, and deployed helicopter gunships and fighter jets against the extremists. Many ordinary folk in Benghazi have been deeply upset about the increasing importance there of a handful of fringe militias. Haftar’s campaign is from all accounts quite welcome to most of the population. The fighting has left 79 dead and 141 wounded over two days, according to the Ministry of Health.

Hafter came on local television on Saturday to express his determination to wipe out the “takfiris,” or extremist Muslims who do not consider other believers truly Muslim. Another retired officer, Adam al-Jarushi (an air force brig. general) the same day called for all Libyan troops to report for duty in the war on the extremists, and for pilots to commit their aircraft to the fray. Many Libyan military men of the Gaddafi era had been secularists and socialists, and a hatred for the minions of Muslim extremism appears still to be ascendant.

The chief of staff in Tripoli called on all troops to resist any group that tried to take Benghazi by force of arms. Likewise the interim prime minister did, as well. The deputies favoring political Islam recently became ascendant in the General National Assembly, accounting for the PM being unhappy with Hafter’s assault on the militants of political Islam.

The US has virtually abandoned Libya since helping it with its revolution against Daffy Gaddafi. The GOP witch hunt over the events of Benghazi have made the Obama administration reluctant to take risks, such that it is running the embassies in Libya, Tunisia and maybe Egypt with skeleton crews. The US has therefore forfeited influence in the new Libya. If the US is so obsessed with Benghazi, that isn’t a good idea.

A while back the #GNC w. US or Euro support formed a national army with Hiftar as its head. Hiftar then became unpopular & one of his sons may have been assassinated. In the last few months information here and there. Personally I don’t think Hiftar plans to set up as the new dictator. I think he is a patriot who has been used by the USA in its plans to get rid of Gaddafi, Bay of Pigs style. He is the only one who is leading, acting, fighting against those who chopped off women’s heads in Derna for driving and Malian hands. Ideology is what counts least in political alliances. He has a complicated history and a very diverse group of followers. His support is increasing as people tired of GNC support for islamist extremists who were making Libya a base for all sort of Islamic fundamentalist jihad groups. Fundamentalism and democracy cannot coexist.

Was it improper to remark that Haftar looks like a US operative, or that perhaps the “consulate” became underground rather than understaffed? Al Jazeera today reports that Haftar was in exile in Virginia in the 1980s declaring that he would depose Gaddafi with a large army.

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